Depression support ✨️

These have helped me, I do cuddling with my baby cat, journaling, aromatherapy, wear soft socks, using a weighted blanket, drink herbal tea, watch my fav tv shows, practice positive affirmations, and engage in mindfulness. What do you do to help your depression? I hope this list can help you. 🙏

[Agora1]

These do help Swilly79. Actually I do 6 out of the 11 everyday.

It brings me peace. Thanks for the post xx

[Hidden in reply to Agora1]

Lovely! They do help. Sometimes it's hard for me to do things for myself but, it's necessary. Thank you for your reply 🙏

[EndUser13]

I like this, it focuses on comfort, sometimes we need to take a little time for self-care. I snuggle my kitty daily and found a perfumed oil that smells like a sweet pipe tobacco, which I'll dab on incense sticks. I think it's really cool the way scents can influence us, especially the things that remind us of something comforting

[Hidden in reply to EndUser13]

Absolutely! Self care is SO important. Comforting is huge with me. I have bedding that reminds me of my guest bed at my grandparents house when I was little. Silly but, it's so soothing.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Have you tried clean sheets🙄seriously it's one of my favourite comfort things fresh in off the line really helps me sleep and the snuggling in to them and the fresh clean smell lol can't beat it 😁💖

[Nothing_but_books in reply to Hidden]

I love the smell of laundry fresh off the clothes line! Thought it was just me and my crow friends -- they love to sit on the line and pick off the clothes pins. So cute. 🙄

[Hidden in reply to Nothing_but_books]

Fresh laundry, mmmm there's nothing like it.

[Hidden in reply to Nothing_but_books]

I took my friends daughter's birds I'll sort the pic and do a post for you I'm too tired tonight so be tomorrow all been well there's a white budgie and yellow one they were talking until we left the room lovely 😁💖

[Nothing_but_books in reply to Hidden]

Sounds great! I'll look forward to it. You'll have to let SS know if he's about. He's a big budgie fan.

[Turnipgirl in reply to Hidden]

Yes I prefer clothes that have been dried outside on the line myself as well.

Recently we bought ourselves a tumble dryer and washer combined and we only use the tumble dryer when it's bad weather to save energy and money!

[Hidden in reply to Turnipgirl]

Limited your carbon footprint too!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Omg yes!!!

[Shnookie]

I sleep with my stuffed animal 🧸 and watch TV shows that I enjoy. I work a 3PM - midnight shift 5 days a week. To get me thru my shifts at night, I listen to all different types of music I like on you tube thru my iPhone

[Hidden in reply to Shnookie]

All so helpful! You're doing damn good at soothing.

We sleep with a stuffed animal too. It's the first gift I gave to my wife when we were dating. His name is Miller lol.

Watching TV is like, my favorite thing to do. And, music can be so comforting and fun.

[Shnookie in reply to Hidden]

I enjoy PBS for all different kinds of shows and I’m a news junkie. It’s so touching that U sleep with your stuffed animal. I also reach out to mental health hotlines such as NAMI

[Tealpillow in reply to Shnookie]

PBS and the news are my go-to channels as well! Probably why I’m so stressed all the time …. But I can’t help it!

[Shnookie in reply to Tealpillow]

I understand what you mean. But PBS has so much to offer. Among other things, I love the Doo Wop specials, Ken Burns Documentaries and Sunday night English mysteries

[Hidden in reply to Shnookie]

I love PBS! NAMI is a great tool.

[Shnookie in reply to Hidden]

NAMI has been very helpful to me. And if anyone here lives in California, the CA Peer run Warm line is a great mental health tool as well.

[Hidden]

Aromatherapy in the apartment today! Salud fellow earth being. Thank you for the diagram.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Wonderful! 🙂

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks!

[SayNOtoPanic]

awesome post Swilly. Love the image and how it lists everything that can be helpful. At least 8 are on my active to do list, the wooly socks and aromatherapy are comforting.

[Hidden in reply to SayNOtoPanic]

Absolutely comforting ☺️

[Turnipgirl]

What I enjoy doing for self care is going out for walks in nature as I have done today and had sandwiches in the park and an ice cream as well and I also enjoy going swimming a few times a week as well!

Also saying no to things that I don't want to do but being polite over it thanking them for the offer but this time I will have to say no thank you which is polite like yesterday when I received an interview request for a couple of hours notice I said to the people concerned thank you for the invite but unfortunately I an unable to attend the interview which is polite and not making up excuses.

Those who make up excuses drive me crackers as why just not say an honest no no thank you as at least that's honest!

Thing is those who make up excuses just make themselves look stupid and childish!

[Hidden in reply to Turnipgirl]

Walks in nature and sandwiches in the park signs sounds dreamy 😍. And yes, saying no for your mental health is so important. That's one of my affirmations. You're doing great at this!

[Turnipgirl in reply to Hidden]

At my new place there is the lady downstairs who brings back unsold food for us from Tesco where she works and there had been loads of bread for everyone to have if they wanted it for free and the chap from downstairs and his friends had said to me why didn't I take a load of it and I had said how at that time I was well stocked but thanked them for the offer and how I would let those have it who needed it due to me being well stocked and they had said to me how I need to be more selfish and I had agreed with them and had said yes I'm aware of this and it's a work in progress and how I'm well aware how I would benefit from being more selfish every so often!

I do feel now and again it does you good to be selfish and put your own needs first every so often.

This is an example of selfish.

Back in June I had reached out to my mother and had ended up having the door slammed in my face and the excuse was that the wi fi had broken!

My friends said that was just rude and ignorant doing that!

Thing is if you feel so aggrieved all because someone has dared to contact you just don't answer the phone and they wouldn't think anything of it!

Then last Sunday night I got an excuse of being busy and I had said can't she come up with a more original excuse than that one and I had felt offended and what I decided to do was stay away from her and only contact her in the extremely rare event that I really really have nothing better to do!

My father in law had said to me to put that behaviour down to her ignorance and had been happy to chat to me when I rang them for support and had said how moving is always an emotional and stressful time for anyone no matter what the circumstances are and had laughed when I had said that for my sanity in future I will stay away from my mother and only contact her in the extremely rare event that I really really have nothing better to do and he said good for me and how its not my fault when people are rude to me and how its their problem not mine!

[Hidden in reply to Turnipgirl]

Darn right!!!

[Turnipgirl in reply to Hidden]

To be fair with you I have had enough of being treated like and getting shoved around like cattle is why I decided on only contacting her when I really really have nothing better to do!

Point is no one HAS to contact anyone if they don't want to do they?

Back in 2019 it was the late May bank holiday and I had gone for a job interview at a place and she had shouted at me and turned on the tears demanding I stay at the job I was with at the time and I shouted back and said no I wasn't staying at a place just to please her and never did either!

I said to one of my old line managers about that incident and she had said how no one has to stay at places when they don't want to!

My ex boyfriend said to me how what it was about that that had upset me was their attitudes towards me rather than not having got the job in itself!

With job interviews worst that happens is you don't get the job and the world doesn't end when that happens!

The excuses though I think are pathetic myself and like I said if you feel so aggrieved all because someone has dared to contact you just don't pick the phone up and they wouldn't think anything of it!

The other day someone tried to contact me and I really really couldn't get to the phone as I was doing something else so what I did was I rang them back when I had a spare 5 minutes and sorted the matter out and hopefully no one was offended!

With respect though when she did those things recently that was just spiteful and childish!

[Hidden in reply to Turnipgirl]

I never answer the phone. Like, never for real. I hate confrontation. I can text or email but that's it. My wife calls people for me, kindly.

So, I get it. I can't even imagine how I'd react to a job interview. I've been unemployed due to mental illness for 15 years.

Ugh.

[Turnipgirl in reply to Hidden]

I don't mind answering the phone to those who I know and trust and also with pre arranged business calls I am OK with.

What annoys me is when employers ring up without notice demanding a phone interview and what I say to them is get lost!

Back in June I had just got back from swimming one Saturday and it was 4.30pm and I received a call from a place not pre booked and I had felt really cross and had said to them nows not a good time and claimed I would call them back!

When I had hung up the call I had got myself a cup of tea and had asked myself why didn't you just tell them no no thank you straight up?

What I did was I did call them back and I told them more or less to get stuffed but in a polite manner and felt I had made the right decision!

I do prefer text and e mail myself as you can respond at your own convenience but I do feel that it's respectful to give bad news over the phone or face to face rather than beep beep!

In itself its not rude not to answer the phone as you can't always be around to get to the phone to answer but what I do is call back when I have a spare 5 minutes free which I feel is fair enough.

What is rude though is to answer the phone to someone and make them feel like a nuisance for ringing as its like having a door slammed in your face!

If you feel so aggrieved as i said before all because someone has dared to ring you don't pick the phone up and perhaps call them back when you have a spare 5 minutes if you want to!

When someone doesn't answer the phone I don't think anything of it and just assume that they couldn't get to the phone for any number of reasons and if the matter is urgent and important I call them back later on.

Point is the world doesn't revolve around the phone does it?

Lots of people are frightened of answering the phone which I think is to do with there being a chance that they will be told things they don't want to hear like bad news.

There can be good news though that's delivered over the phone as well!

[Hidden in reply to Turnipgirl]

All so true! I get a lot of spam calls, those are annoying. Bad news definitely needs to be said in person for sure. The phone interview,- I agree with you. It's like, 'yeah let me just drop everything I was doing and get in the mindset immediately for an interview' lol These darn phones! I feel like I wanna just turn mine off sometimes 😕

[Turnipgirl in reply to Hidden]

Say if we had agreed together to do that Saturday at 4.30pm I wouldn't have felt cross as I am easy going and wouldn't have minded fitting them in then as I have done Saturday interviews before but they were arranged with me first!

Last week I got an invite for a Sunday interview on the Friday and my answer to that one was no no thank you which was fair enough and this week got called for interviews at short notice on the same day and my answer to them with those was no no thank you as well.

In regard to the Sunday interview if they had been polite and asked in advance perhaps I might have accommodated them but it was the attitude that upset me more than interviewing on a Sunday!

Those unplanned phone interviews I find are extremely frustrating and nowadays I have the confidence to tell them to get lost directly!

It's all about treating people with the same respect which you would like to be treated yourself.

[Hidden]

just getting out of bed is a real task for me. I have tried to do some of the things that are listed above, and once I start them, I find myself having trouble completing the task. Putting on warm cozy socks in the winter sounds good, but when it's 102 degrees, you kinda want to put your head in the freezer to find some relief. How does a person cope with being alone and not having anyone to talk to?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I totally understand, I'm alone most of the day. These are just suggestions of course, they can't fix depression-though I wish something easy did! It gets hot here but I still use my weighted blanket bc it doesn't make me hot for some reason lol hugs